Petaluma Profile: Michelle Lambert is fighting (and fiddling) for her dreams

Fighting for your rights is a normal part of life among siblings. Michelle Lambert should know. She has five of them. From a young age, she fought to be afforded the same rights and privileges as her brothers.

“My poor mom,” she grinned wryly. “She is such a strong woman.”

Michelle herself is clearly no slouch in the strength category. She took her GED when she was a sophomore in high school because she already knew that music would require her attention full-time. Since then she has gone on to the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston and after graduation played both the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, and in front of 18,000 people during the NCAA Women's Final Four at the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville.

About that show, she said, “I was excited, of course, until five minutes before I went on and I realized that these people weren’t there for me.” With a group of friends in the audience, Michelle called on that fighting spirit and walked on stage knowing that she had to demand attention.

She received a standing ovation.

It would be hard not to be stirred by her unique and eclectic mix of pop-rock, Celtic fiddle, Nashville influence, and NorCal vibe. Her music is both technically breathtaking and electrifying in its intensity. That shouldn’t be surprising though, as the California native has never done things by halves.

She grew up in Mendocino County, and as a teenager she began touring hard around Northern California, building her reputation as a musician, setting her sights on specific music venues she considered important for a rising young musician to perform at. One of those was Petaluma’s Mystic Theatre.

“I performed a lot in Sonoma County as a teen before going off to college,” she said. “Petaluma was an important city, with the Mystic Theater. I opened for a handful of acts there. I also used to love to shop at Tall Toad Music as well.”

Lambert eventually became so well known in Petaluma that to this day many local music fans have claimed her as one of their own.

Upon receiving a full scholarship to Berklee, she moved straight to Boston.

“I took my car,” she said. “Learning the roads and all the weird old bridges and lanes was difficult.”

But the adjustment wasn’t all old thoroughfares and train schedules. For the first time, she was in a place where everyone was equally talented and equally driven. While a lot of people would have found the experience of no longer being the big fish in the small pond intimidating, Michelle looked at the transition as a way to grow.

“You have to learn to get over envy and be friends with people who are amazingly talented and cool,” she said.

These friendships and connections were what helped her when she once again packed everything she owned into her car and hit the road. After graduation from college, she knew that she needed to move to one of the big three music towns. New York wasn’t her vibe. She wasn’t ready to come home to California, so Nashville was the obvious choice.

When she rolled into town she didn’t know a soul, but her connections from Berklee helped her start landing gigs at honkytonks playing the fiddle. With bills covered, she was able to focus on writing and producing. It was during this time that she developed her musical sound with its deep messages of hometown pride, fighting against the odds, and female empowerment.

“I was really missing California,” she said of her album “Angel,” on which that longing for home is deeply felt in the song “My California,” which ends like the love letter that it is.

“I’m coming home that much I can say/I’ll be with you in my final days/My California.”

In 2018, she finally came home to California, and settled in San Francisco, but still plays in Petaluma regularly, most recently at Adobe Road Winery.

“SInce moving back to the Bay Area, Petaluma has been a regular tour spot,” she said, acknowledging how welcome she is always made to feel here. “I always enjoy performing at the Adobe Road Winery. I have also performed at the Sonoma-Marin Fair at the Petaluma Fairgrounds.” Last month she played what she described as her favorite Bay Area show to date. It was an intimate gig at the Back Room in Berkeley, CA, and it was her first ticketed show as the headliner.

Unlike in that big arena all those years ago, this time, these people were here to see her.

Lambert, however, is nonplussed about the size of the audience. To her, music is about storytelling, about painting a picture with words and sounds that others can see and experience together. Regardless of the size of the audience, as long as people are engaged she feels that they can all share that journey together.

Throughout her music, the running theme of being the underdog, of fighting for your goals and dreams, of having faith, stands out, along with a certain inspiration focus on the possibility of reaching one’s goals. Lambert said she wants her music to help others as much as it has always helped her. She also wants to leave an easier path up that mountain for the women coming behind her.

“You have to know how big the mountain is,” she said, “but once you know the size you can figure out how to climb it.”

Find more information about Michelle, upcoming gigs and where to hear her music Michellelambert.com.